


L.A. By Night - The Fools of L.A.

by HollowBeta



Series: L.A. By Night - The Fools of L.A. [1]
Category: L.A. By Night (Web Series), Mage: The Ascension, World of Darkness (Games)
Genre: Cannon Character are Side Characters, Council of the Nine Mystic Traditions, Major Original Character(s), The Technocratic Union, World of Darkness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:21:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24374200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HollowBeta/pseuds/HollowBeta
Summary: Vampires are not the only actors within the shadows of the modern world. The Camarilla vs Anarchs is a petty conflict compared to the Accession Wars between the mages.Key Whitefield is newly awakened mage who is saved from being arrested a group claiming to call themselves to be part of the Nine Traditions, little does she know she has entered a centuries-old war where the line between perceptive and reality is shaky at best.
Series: L.A. By Night - The Fools of L.A. [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1759885
Comments: 4
Kudos: 2





	1. The Mage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> .Key has been experiencing strange events ever since a vision on Tuesday night. Meanwhile, a cabal of Mages arrives at Griffith College looking into strange dealings of fate.

Key Whitefield sat in Griffith College’s coffee shop. She watched the condensation roll off the barely drunk Pepsi bottle, still cool from the fridge. She sank into the G.U hoodie, the people chatting until closing time, the hiss of the coffee machine and the bad mashup music from Sour Sugar all blended into one background sound.

The mashup today was some mix of Simon and Garfunkel and Chelsea Wolfe. She didn’t know this because of some knowledge of music, in fact, she had never heard of these people, but she could see the word file.

Key saw the data of the file fly from the routers to their phones. She could see what type of file, the saved title and every word written. That is how she found out the song they were playing on Friday night.

She had been seeing data, in bright neon blue light, ever since an all nightery on Tuesday. She had been coding and suddenly she stopped typing but the code was still appearing. The code was written flawlessly, happening as soon as she thought it.

The bars of the internet filled her head, webpage upon webpage ran through her mind. Everything, the whole wide world of data, all its knowledge and power was at her fingertips. Every nerve in her body was part of the web which connected everyone.

Then finial it landed on golden quest marker.

Complete the Tutorial the text under it read.

She woke up on her keyboard, she saw blue strings of data, like a spider’s web made of numbers, attached to her computer. On the soft glow of her monitor, there was a girl, she had purple hair in a ponytail. The ends of the hair seemed to fade into floating neon blue pixels which disappeared into her wallpaper. This effect happened just below her knee as well.

Her eyes intensely looked at Key. She had purple eyes but her pupils where the standby symbol, a straight line going into a broken circle. Key jumped back; her head hummed with an electronic buzz.

“Hello, Key. It’s good to see if you're awake.” The girl said. Her voice was sweet and cheery. The girl explained she was a program that Key had made. She said was a self-aware artificial intelligence and that the internet was much deeper level than she ever knew. Key had apparently “awakened” to this deeper connection to the internet.

She could use a computer with her mind, sometimes. If people where around it wouldn’t work, and she would get a headache. Sometimes certain people would send a shiver down her spine and make her skin crawl. Sometimes in her peripheral, they would even glow different colours, though she didn’t even know if that was trick of her mind.

There was one of the people like that in the café, she wore a red jacket and was talking to someone. She looked up to see streams of internet travelling towards the two of them. Ones, zeros, words, and links.

Key felt a sinking feeling in her gut. She should tell the guy he might be in some danger. What danger though? She had no idea what even why her mind was on edge. Key let out a sigh and just watched the two.

Key’s fun beeped, she flipped it over to see the purple-haired girl. Much small then she was when on her monitor. Her pixels floated off the screen long before they disappeared. She seemingly could get to any device that Key had used since that Tuesday night. Key had called her Project.

“You’re in danger.” Project said using a notification.

-

A black van pulled up into Griffith College’s car park. Its drive Elizabeth Katherine Branch Von Feuerschwinge bani Flambeau, eyes of the sliver comet, holder of the fiery wings, the ashen one. She scrolled down the window lighting a cigarette. Her red and black suit stood out compared to the normal clothes of the late-night students.

“You sure this is the place?” She said between drags.

“Do you doubt my reading of the strings of fate?” The man next to her asked. He had short sharp ebony hair. He was checking his revolver, loading in the bullets in a slow ritualistic fashion. Each cap was in graved with a skull and some words in ancient Greek.

His name was William Jackson, a death mage. He also wore a suit, but unlike Elizabeth’s, he didn’t secretly sew symbols into them. The only member in the car who wasn’t finely dressed was Tom Donaldson, he simple wore a hoodie, jeans and no shoes or socks. He did have blue tattoos peaks up from his collar. He sat in back as he dug the dirt from under his nails with a combat knife.

“I asked the spirits,” Tom said in a thick Scottish accent. “They did say something happened here on Tuesday night. They also told me about the use of magick in one of the dorms.”

“I don’t doubt ever of you,” Elizabeth said. She flicked her cigarette towards the bin. “It’s just that if this isn’t anything important the Council will have our, MY, ass. If it is something, then Technocracy would have noticed as well.”

“Then let’s not waste time,” William said. He holstered his gun and stepped out the car.

“Death boy has a point,” Tom said leaning between the two front sits.

“That he does,” Elizabeth said after a long sigh.

The cabal entered Griffith College heading to the quad, each of them felt on edge. Not for least, they could all see that there were vampires already here. Elizabeth found that them wearing dark suits and one in the black hoodie was cliché for the leeches. Though despite the feel of rage building up inside her, she knew she wasn’t here to deal with them, maybe at a later time.

-

Key burst into the quad. She had put in cheap earbuds when she was left the café, this way Project could talk to her without push notifications. She turned the volume up to max to her Project over the music of Sour Sugar.

“What the hell is going on?” Key whispered into the microphone.

“I-I don’t know, it what I heard on the Digital Web.” Project said.

“A rumour?”

“Well yes, rumours about people like you being kidnapped by a government force.”

“Oh, great conspiracy theo-”

“Ms Key Whitefield.” A woman shouted. She was walking from the decoration of the dorms. She was African American who was wearing a three-piece suit and aviator glasses. A tall man, in the same, get up, strode next to her.

“We are just here to talk, please don’t do anything drastic.” The women started to say. Key felt a sudden force smash against her brain. It felt like she had just run to a wall, with every word it felt like her head was slammed again and again.

Key turned on her heels and ran. She had a gut feeling whatever the women had done while she was talking, she wouldn’t be able to stop it. Maybe, if she couldn’t hear it, whatever it was, wouldn’t affect her. Rushing through the glass doors back towards the café. Key’s lungs were already on fire, she cursed under her breath for not paying attrition to in P.E. She heard the door behind her swing up and two sets of footsteps come through.

“Project, play my playlist and find a map of whatever building I’m in,” Key ordered.

“Sure thing!”

“And tell me where to go.”

The two footsteps came quickly after her. Project shouted over the roaring blizzard of the music. Left, right, left, left, right. Her legs felt like they were going to become jelly, maybe literally with how her week had been going, they would. She still could hear the footsteps running behind her they were getting closer and closer each second.

Her face exploded in pain. She ran into someone, Key stumbled back but hands quickly grabbed her before she fell backwards. It was a woman with ashen white hair, wearing a red and black suit. She quickly looked down at Key then up at her pursuers.

“Are you the mage?” The women asked.

“The what?” She asked back, the exhaustion coming over her.

“She has a pixie from the Digital Web.” A man with a Scottish accent remarked.

“Give her over Reality Deviants!” Key’s pursuer ordered.

“Tom, take her to the car.” The women in a red suit said. She pushed Key towards the Scottish man. Tom gave a nod and started to drag Key down the hallway. Key could hear an argument starting as she forced to leave.

“Don’t worry lass, you’ll be safe with us,” Tom said.

-

Elizabeth mental counted the steps as Tom and the new mage made their way towards the car park. Elizabeth raised her arm revelling a golden vambrace embroidered with a deep pink gem which glowed dimly with power. A philosopher's stone, not created by her, but a gift from a friend in House Solificati.

William pulled out his revolver and pointed it as the tall man behind the women. The women raised a sliver gun. It looked like a normal gun, but it was slightly slicker in design, too sharp to be made by normal human hands. She guessed it was some sort of hyper-tech, masquerading as a gun.

“Stole that from a museum?” The African American Black Hat asked.

“You wish. R and D’s new toy?” Elizabeth said. She placed an index finger on the philosopher’s stone. She began to start to trace a triangle. 

“Stop with the finger movements or we’ll shoot.”

“Lower the gun. I doubt the Technocracy wants a firefight at a College.”

“And I doubt you want to waste a spell slot.” She said with a smirk.

“Your funny, aren’t you?” Elizabeth said, not smiling.

“I try to be, it was on my resume after all.” The women said, “Now we don’t want to fight.”

“Neither do us.”

“But we are taking the girl with us.”

“We can’t let you do that. William”

William quickly, moving faster then both of the agents could notice, pulled out a small grenade and threw it the ground. A loud snapping sound and exploding of light filled the hallway. Elizabeth turned to run a second before it hit the ground, she assumed their fancy glasses would stop most of the flashbang.

William and Elizabeth rushed down the hallway, there wasn’t a gunshot but the ceil tiles above her head exploded. As they ran William muttered words under his breath and flipped a coin. He expanded his Will over himself. Elizabeth placed her index finger on a symbol on her blazer.

“Scutum Martis.” She called on her force of her Will and years of hermetic training. With her sense tuned to the forces of the spheres, she saw the symbol of Force, Entropy and Prime appeared around her. Purple glowing shields against the fate of death.

More silent explosions appeared around the two. They busted out toward the car park. Tom had already opened the front door for them. The van was already running. They dove into the car. William scrambling to get into passenger side seat. With the door hanging open she swerved the van out of the parking spot. Elizabeth noticed the agents stop their chase when they emerged from the building. The women held her finger up to her earpiece.

Elizabeth let out a sigh. “Great, the fucking Technocracy. Strap in kid, this will be a rough lesson.”

-

Key had been sitting awkwardly in the car with the strange shoeless man for about a minute. Project had turned down the music, despite her correctness on a conspiracy theory she had no idea who these people were.

“So, what’s your name?” Tom asked. He was leaning into the front of the car. He had turned the car on and left the drive side door open. He sat back down in the back.

“Who are they?” Key asked.

“Who’s who? Those guys in the suits and the mirror shades? There the Technocracy, they don’t believe in magick, and don’t want anyone to believe in it either.” Tom explained.

Before Key could ask more questions the other two people who had been with Tom rushed towards the car. The man with black hair, despite wearing a fancy suit dove into the passenger side seat. It wasn’t as graceful as Key thought he might think he looked.

The white-haired women started driving even before closing the door. This sent Key to hit the side of the back-right door. The women muttered something then shouted into the back seats.

“Strap in kid, this will be a rough lesson.” The women shouted.

Key quickly put on the seat belt as the black van screeched into the roads of L.A. The front door slammed shut and quietness fell over the passengers. Key was surprised that even Project was chirping in.

“Do you have a phone?” The women driving said.

“Y-yeah,” Key replied.

“Destroy it.” The women order.

“There is no need for that, she is a spirit inside that phone.” Tom said, “If it’s a familiar with its salt it will stop us from being tracked.”

“On it!” Project blasted through phones speakers.

“Ok, so I’m Elizabeth Von Feuerschwinge bani Flambeau, eyes of the sliver comet, holder of the fiery wings, the ashen one.” The driver said, she pointed her head towards the man next to her. “This is William Jackson Bani Euthanatos, and the guy next to you is Tom Donaldson Bani Verbena.” Elizabeth paused. “I just said words you have no idea what they mean.”

“Is magic real?” Key asked.

“Yes,” William said sternly. “Magick is real.”

Key didn’t know what to say. Magic was real? She hadn’t seen anyone throw a fireball or cast rituals with glyphs and wands. She looked at her phone screen is disbelief; Project just gave a cheerful smile back.

“I don’t understand. Who are you?”

“First, what’s your name?” Elizabeth asked.

“It’s Key.”

“Ok Key, you have a self-aware A.I on your phone, doesn’t that seem like magic to you? I’m sure you have been seeing strange stuff as well.” Elizabeth explained.

“Yeah, I have been seeing strings of data connecting to things,” Key said.

“That is magick. You will have to figure out how to do that magick yourself.” William said.

Silence fell among the car again as Elizabeth weaved the van through the streets. Key tried to wrap her head around magic. It would make somewhat sense, digital magic, but she had no idea how to do it or repeat the effects.

“It’s best if we explain things when we know we aren’t about to be killed,” Elizabeth said. “William, do you have a safe house around here?”

“Yes. We can use it.” William said.

“Key, first I must apologise that you have just become a college dropout but welcome to the Council of the Nine Mystic Traditions.”


	2. A Lecture in Magick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Key learns more about the fundamentals of Magick. Though as the sun rises on L.A. after last nights chaos, Elizabeth goes to the to an older Hermetic Mage for advice.

The van pulled up on a random street in Valley. The Cabal with Key was led by William to a small apartment room five blocks from the where they dumped the car. The kitchen, the bedroom and the living room was all one space. The streetlights bled in through the only window. The walls were covered with stylized pomegranate wallpaper.

“I didn’t expect this,” Key said out loud.

“Let me see Key.” Project buzzed from her phone in her hoodie pocket.

William looked at Key, she could see the dull shock in his eyes. He took off his blazer and hung it up and coat hanger attached to the door. This gave Key a clear view of the holster, not only had a revolver but also a more modern style pistol. Key didn’t know a lot about guns, but she was pretty sure that it could put a hole in her chest.

“It is a symbol of the goddess Persephone; she shall keep you safe for tonight,” William said.

“Gods are real?” Key said looking back and forth and shock.

“Sort of, I don’t want either of you fill her brains with your Orphism Death Magic or your Celtic geasa,” Elizabeth said taking a cheap bottle of alcohol out of the fridge. She pointed at William first then at Tom.

“That my alcohol. I use it for both medicine and necromancy. Please do not drink it.” William said. “Are you going to fill her head with hermetic formula and alchemical ingredients?”

Elizabeth shoved the alcohol back into the fridge. A jingle of the glass hitting glass could be heard. Her face was hard with frustration. She let out a long sigh.

“No, no I am not. I’m going to take her to a monastery to be taught by the fucking Celestial Chorus. No, I’m going to try and get her in contact with the Virtual Adept. She has an A.I and can see data, who did you think I was going to get to teach her?”

“I’m going to get pizza.” Tom abruptly said. “Key, what do you drink?”

Key looked awkwardly up from her phone. “Diet Coke.”

Tom raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. He turned around and left, whistling what sounded like a Scottish song. Key turned back to the other two. Elizabeth sat on the bed; she ran her hands through her white hair.

“What is wrong Elizabeth?” William asked, his voice acutely sound considered.

“I’m stressed. Both of us was nearly killed or captured by Technocrats today.” She replied. “And now we have this new mage to look after.”

William raised an eyebrow. “No offence Key but we are not your keepers.”

“No!” Elizabeth shouted. William, again, looked surprised. Key hide her face behind her phone.

“We will protect her from the technocracy. They probably have our faces all together in their records anyway.” Elizabeth said, calming down.

“I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you guys are talking about.” Key whispered over her phone. Key speaking up seemed to break the concentration the two had on each other. William gave a smile akin to nostalgia.

“Ok kid, take a seat,” Elizabeth said petting the space on the bed. “Let me tell you about magick.”

Key felt like she was back in a university lecture. If William hadn’t shaken his head when she had opened the note pad app, she would have been taking notes. Elizabeth explained that magic is really spelt with a K on the end, the one with just a C at the end was the type of magic done by sorcerers or vampires and creatures like them. Despite all the talks of A.I, Digital Webs and magic(k), vampires being real felt like a fresh punch into Key’s sense of normal.

Though Magick with a K was the type the awakened people could do. Awakened where just ‘normal’ people who could force their own Will on to reality, but the methods of how to do this is, Elizabeth said, are a topic of hotly debate topic. William added the source of this power was also debate. The only thing which was agreed upon was that there were nine spheres of reality with only some alterations, like Key’s power over Data instead of Correspondence.

They also said that when awakened people push their Will on Reality sometimes Reality pushes back on to the person. This is called paradox, the headaches that Key got when trying to use computers with her mind made more sense. It was like an anti-cheat for the world she reasoned.

These awakened people each a force which pushed them to understand magick and themselves. This force, called Avatars, pushed its person towards the mystical peak of Ascension.

When Key asked about what Ascension was, this just caused William and Elizabeth to get into an argument about what Ascension was. When Tom came back carrying four boxes of pizza his face dropped seeing the argument. Key still didn’t know what it was.

The Technocracy apparently hated any idea of the supernatural, that science was truth above all. They were willing to kill and use mind control to active their goals of a world without magick, a world without free will. Key felt uneasy, that sounded so overblown, so overdramatic. If she had gone with the people at college would she have been mined controlled? The question lingered uncomfortably long inside Key’s head.

The Council of Nine Mystic Traditions, on the other hand, are a group of many different thoughts on magick, practices and thoughts. They fight the Technocracy to keep magick alive though they currently seemed to in a cold war. Key had to disagree the with the cold war part with how they chased her.

“Why can’t I go back to College?” Key asked at the end of the lecture.

“The Technocracy has probably bugged your room. They will know when you step foot on campus again. You might be able to enrol next year once the heat dies down.” William said. “You can sleep here tonight. We all have homes to go to.”

Key gave a nod. Her head was still reeling with the huge amount of information she just had absorbed. Looking at the time on her phone it had been an hour from the start of her lesson. Key picked up the last slice of her pizza and slowly munched on it.

“So, how do you know each other?” Key asked.

“The Council of L.A. put us together, we are to look into the famed Second Inquisition,” Elizabeth said. She did jazz hands when saying the Second Inquisition.

“The Second Inquisition are a bunch of humans who have been hunting down vampires,” Tom said, between mouthfuls of his anchovy pizza. “Normal, we would let them carry on. Vampire hunters are usually a bunch of crazy religious nuts.”

“But this Second Inquisition has managed to remove vampires from London.” William cut in. “Using technology which cuts to close to hyper-tech for the New Horizon Council. If the Technocracy is willing to use human to hunt down vampires, it is logical to say that we will be next.”

Key gave a nod, vampire being real was still quite shocking. She looked down at her phone, gently watching the stream of gibberish letters and numbers flew away to wherever the internet of 4G came from. It amazed her that something which made her feel so uncomfortable just hours ago felt normal now.

William got up and placed half of his pizza in the fridge. He quickly put on his blazer.

“I am going home. Key, there is a shotgun under the sink. Use it if you are attacked.” William said opening the door.

“I thought you said the goddess Persephone would protect me in here?” Key asked.

“It does help to have a gun,” William said before he shut the door.

Soon after that Tom left, followed by Elizabeth. Key laid down in the creaking bed. She pulled up her phone, it was on seventy-seven per cent. She hadn’t brought her charger; she hadn’t brought anything with her.

She imagined that being a criminal of the super-secret shadow government would be more exciting. Key scrolled through the news, there was nothing about her. She let out a thankful sigh, at least those agents hadn’t made her a literal criminal.

“Hey Project?” She called out.

“Yeah?” Project cheerful replied, her head popping up from the bottom of the screen.

“How do you get to the Digital Web?”

“Well, you need some sort of virtual reality or argument reality device and some sort of input device.” Project explained. Key already had input with her mind, but she didn’t currently have a computer let alone a VR headset. Her eyes fell on to the grease cardboard pizza box.

“Project how do you build those cardboard VR headsets?”

-

The morning arose across the city of L.A. Elizabeth allowed the feeling of softness of chanters bed to take her for a few more moments. The sunlight became many different colours through her stained-glass window. An image of gryphon sitting upon a bed of fire. Its clear eyes seemed to look down upon Elizabeth.

The gryphon soulless eyes eventually pressured Elizabeth to get up. She took a shower, thanking the Order of Hermes added plumbing to their conscience. The building buzzed with the familiar pulse of Quintessence, a plus which she had felt since she was a child.

She got dressed in another one of her suits. This one red and white, the symbols of much more powerful than she wore last night. Symbols of fire, explosions and raw energy. Enough to burn any vampire to ash. Enough to make all the modern weapons of the Second Inquisition useless. Enough to make sure the Technocracy pays if they showed up again.

She slipped on a long robe of the Order of Hermes chantry. Across her breast the coat of arms of House Flambeau alongside her rank. She was a mage of the sixth Degree, with the title of Adept.

She left her bedroom and strode through the halls of the Chantry. The air glowed with the power of magick. Apprentices below the Third degree bowed to her as she passed. Some even asked about lessons on explosives magic. Which reminded her to talk to the teachers and ask them to stop recommending her as a tutor for the path of hellfire.

A pit of dread formed in her stomach. As she walked past the offices of awakened mages, towards the top of the building. Towards the Magister Scholae Germain Orlando Shields Roland bani Tytalus, the Prime of Will, Exarch of Communication, Holder of Seventy-Two, The Holder of the Seven Rings, Headmen of Secrets, Tricks of the Fallen’s office. More importantly to Elizabeth, he was the mage which sat on the Council of L.A as the representation of the Order of Hermes.

Elizabeth had to fight the will to cast a spell to make her footsteps quieter. She played with the buttons as she walked up to his office door. A nervous shiver went down the back of her spin, she felt like she was a child again. The many times when she was an apprentice and had to walk up to the awakened mages about the burning ash pile in the study hall.

“Just come in Elizabeth. I don’t need magick to see your lollygagging.” The voice called from inside. Elizabeth quickly opened the door to see the man at his desk. Behind him, he had a window in the shape of the coat of arms of House Tytalus. One side with a side with an upside-down arrow, one with a deer and in the middle a spiral. She could see the morning city, the cars and people going to work, without even knowing that they lived next to a nexus of magical energy.

Germain himself was young looking for a Magister Scholae. He had neatly cut brown hair and perfectly sharp features. He seemed to look like an artistic rendition of perfection. Elizabeth reasoned he must have been using some mental trick to make himself look like that. She was about to touch a symbol sewed in her blazer. The alchemical symbol for the element of Mercury, the element of the mind.

“Your mind shield is broken. You can reapply it after you are done talking to me.” Germain said. He didn’t even look up from the tome he was reading.

“Yes sir,” Elizabeth said. “My cabal and I have found a newly awakened mage, we also had a run-in with Technocrats agent when we found her. I’d like to know how that would change our assignment?”

Germain looked up from his book, he looked bored with the conversation.

“Elizabeth, normal people are the best way to test a new mage in real combat. As for the Technocracy, lay low. Maybe wait a week before getting back to the investigation, just to be safe.” Germain said bluntly. “Now, be gone.”

As Elizabeth left, she hung her head in shame for wasting some of Eighth Degree’s time. Germain spoke up again. “And also, Elizabeth, go see the counsellor, you can’t let what happened to your Mentor haunt you forever.”

“Yes, sir,” Elizabeth said. She decided to go to the balcony for a smoke instead.

-

The morning sun burned away the mist of the graveyard. Between the grey tombstones, William sat next to a dug-up grave. A big mac, large fries and banana milkshake sat on top of the coffin.

William smiled at his own luck that the milkshake machine was working. Though with the morning sun the ghost was banished back to the Shadowlands. William took a bite out of his hamburger, he thought about what the ghost had told him. He flipped a golden coin on to the coffin lid.

After he finished his side of the meal, William picked up the muddy shovel and started to refill the hole he had created.

“May the Ferryman take you to the judges of Hades. Your family will be safe, and your death avenged.” William said while the last bits of earth covered the coffin.


End file.
